Plotinus and the Presocratics: A Philosophical Study of Presocratic Influences in Plotinus' Enneads

by Stamatellos, Giannis

• ISBN13: 9780791470626
• ISBN10: 0791470628
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Filling the void in the current scholarship, Giannis Stamatellos provides the first book-length study of the Presocratic influences in Plotinus' Enneads. Widely regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (204-270 AD) assimilated eight centuries of Greek thought into his work. In this book Stamatellos focuses on eminent Presocratic thinkers who are significant in Plotinus' thought, including Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the early Pythagoreans, and the early Atomists. The Presocratic references found in the Enneads are studied in connection with Plotinus' fundamental theories of the One and the unity of being, intellect and the structure of the intelligible world, the nature of eternity and time, the formation of the material world, and the nature of the ensouled body. Stamatellos concludes that, contrary to modern scholarship's dismissal of Presocratic influence in the Enneads, Presocratic philosophy is in fact an important source for Plotinus, which he recognized as valuable in its own right and adapted for key topics in his thought. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Giannis Stamatellos is Instructor of Ancient Greek Philosophy at New York College in Athens, Greece

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Origins of Plotinus' Philosophy	p. 3
Plotinus' Predecessors	p. 3
Plotinus' Philosophical Method	p. 4
Lectures and Writings	p. 5
Language, Simile, and Metaphor	p. 6
Quoting Predecessors	p. 8
Plotinus' Philosophical Sources	p. 10
Plato	p. 11
Aristotle	p. 14
Stoics and Epicureans	p. 14
Middle-Platonists, Aristotelians, and Neopythagoreans	p. 15
Gnostics, Christians, the Orient, and Other Contemporary Movements	p. 17
Plotinus and the Preoscratics	p. 19
One and Unity	p. 23
The One in Plotinus	p. 23
The Presocratic One in the Enneads	p. 26
Parmenides' Monism	p. 30
The Ineffable One	p. 33
The Apophatism of the First Principle	p. 35
The Pythagorean Apophatism of the Monad	p. 36
The One as First Principle	p. 42
Heraclitus' One	p. 44
Empedocles' Philia	p. 48
Anaxagoras' Mind	p. 53
Intellect and Being	p. 59
Plotinus' Theory of Intellect	p. 59
Elastic Being in the Enneads	p. 64
The Nature of Being	p. 65
Parmenides' Theory of Being	p. 66
Plotinus on Parmenides' Being	p. 70
Thinking and Being	p. 72
The Predicates of Being	p. 80
Ungenerated and Indestructible	p. 81
Indivisible and Self-identical	p. 83
Imperturbable and Changeless	p. 84
Eternity and Time	p. 89
Plotinus' Theory of Eternity and Time	p. 89
Eternity and Time in the Presocratics	p. 94
The Presocratic Theories of Eternity and Time in the Enneads	p. 96
The Timelessness of Being	p. 99
Philolaus' Eternal Continuance and Plato's Eternity of the Forms	p. 101
Parmenides' Timelessness of Being	p. 105
Plotinus' Timelessness of Eternity	p. 111
The Eternal Life of Intellect	p. 112
Eternity in Heraclitus	p. 114
Eternal Life in Empedocles	p. 117
The Everlastingness of Time	p. 120
The Myth of Time	p. 121
The Everlastingness of the Cosmos	p. 123
The Movement of the Spheres, Eternal Recurrence, and Spiral Time	p. 129
Matter and Soul	p. 135
Matter and Ensouled Body in Plotinus	p. 135
Plotinus' Criticism of Presocratic Matter	p. 138
Anximander's apeiron	p. 139
Empedocles' Theory of the Four Elements	p. 142
Anaxagoras' Theory of Matter	p. 145
The Atomic Theory of Matter	p. 150
Plotinus' Theory of the Ensouled Body	p. 156
The Presocratic Theories of the Ensouled Body in the Enneads	p. 158
Heraclitus' Theory of Soul and Physical Alternation	p. 158
The daimon in Empedocles	p. 166
Conclusion	p. 173
Text of Presocratic Fragments in Plotinus' Enneads	p. 177
Notes	p. 197
Bibliography	p. 239
Index Fontium	p. 255
Index of Concepts and Proper Names	p. 259
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